


Harmonies and Melodies

by dannyavidan (jonmangum)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Acapella Group!AU, College!AU, F/M, M/M, i love acapella music so much i couldn't resist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-16 19:57:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/866011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonmangum/pseuds/dannyavidan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Michael decided he wanted to go to University of Texas to pursue a career in making video games, he had no idea he'd get roped into joining a college acapella group. And yet, Michael never once regrets joining in the slightest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just The Beginning

The cab ride from the airport to the University of Texas campus was long, humid, and filled with traffic, much to Michael Jones' extreme dismay. In fact, Michael regretted getting into the cab in the first place because he knew just a minute out onto a main road that he had stepped into a cab ride that was so utterly mind-numbing, he felt like jumping out the backseat and into oncoming traffic. But Michael couldn't have the desire to jump into traffic just yet. He could do that when the courseload at college got to be too much. He couldn't kill himself before he had even got there, he reminded himself.

The road to the University of Texas was a long one. The cab's radio played shitty modern day pop music as the cab inched along in ten-in-the-morning traffic. Michael stared at the cars passing by alongside of him and longed to be in a car that was actually continuously moving. The brunet boy sighed deeply and closed his eyes as he continued to suffer through the cab ride.

Finally, after getting out of a small bout of traffic by the school's main entrance, Michael arrived at the campus of the University of Texas. His stomach immediately filled with a mix of excitement, dread, and irritation as he opened the cab door and stepped out onto solid sidewalk.

Without any offered help from anyone nearby or even his goddamn son-of-a-bitch cab driver, Michael lugged all of his suitcases and bags across the campus, desperately searching for Jefferson Hall, which was where his dorm room would be.

Michael searched and searched across the large sprawling campus, coming to dead end after dead end. After a good ten minutes of searching, asking countless students who had no idea where they were going either, and cursing every time he found a dorm building that just happened to not be his own, he finally found Jefferson Hall. It looked slightly brand new and was painted red, white, and blue. Michael let out a half-excited and half-relieved sigh and made his way inside before heading to the third floor, where his room was to be.

He quickly dragged his bags and his luggage inside the building and sat his stuff on the empty bed in the room. Michael had barely two seconds to relax and start sorting out his clothes and things before a small and slightly heavier boy rushed over to his side and extended a hand out to him.

"Hiya! I'm Kerry! Kerry Shawcross! But if you don't wanna remember that, just call me 'Berry'. It's what a lot of my friends back home call me. You see..." the other boy began, his slightly higher-pitched voice going about a mile a minute. Michael almost immediately stopped paying attention to the boy's story and sighed heavily. This kid was definitely going to be a problem. After hurriedly explaining how he got his nickname (some dumb story about he's really obsessed with Halle Berry or some shit), he smiled at Michael, apparently waiting for him to say something.

"Oh. Yeah. I'm Michael Jones. Uh...It's nice to meet ya, Kerry," Michael said before turning back to attend to his bags. Kerry nodded and said Michael's name out loud before scurrying back over to his bed.

"Well, it's great to meet you too, Michael Jones!" Kerry said as he fiddled with a backpack of his. "Uh...I'm really relaxed on pretty much anything. Just...warn me if it when you're jerking it in here. Or if you're bringing someone up to the room. That's pretty much it. Oh! And if you wanna hang out sometime, just let me know! I know a couple of people here and I think you'd get along with them pretty good!" Kerry spun around and faced Michael with a huge grin on his face. Michael paused with setting up his laptop for a moment just to stare at the other boy.

He was going to be his roommate until May of next year.

_Oh joy._

"Okay...well, uh, thanks, Kerry. I...I'll do that," Michael said as he resumed working on figuring out where he should put his desk. Kerry nodded and started heading to the door, saying, "I'm gonna go meet up with some friends and let you get all set up in peace. See ya later, buddy!" The other boy merrily strode out of the room, Michael watching him leave. The redhead sighed heavily and returned to his unpacking.

As Michael unpacked, he pulled up his favorite music playslist in iTunes to play as he worked. Michael worked on setting up his desk and stuffing all his clothes into his closet for the next hour or so. He hummed along to the music, a smile slowly creeping up his face. He was finally a college kid. Just as Michael was finishing up, Kerry burst in with a large grin on his face. The other boy admired the now-uncluttered room and let out a happy sigh.

"Looks good, buddy!" Kerry said flopping onto his bed and pulling out his MacBook Pro. "Oh, by the way, broseph, my friend Miles told me that tomorrow there's gonna be a College Extracurricular Activites Fair on the lawn as kind of a way for freshman to see what they can get involved with during their time here. There'll be booths for sports and academics and theatre and shit like that." Michael looked at the younger boy over his shoulder and hummed in response.

_An extracurricular activites fair_ , Michael thought. _Maybe they'll have something I can join. At least then I could fucking make some friends around here and not have to deal with goddamn Hyper Energy Boy over here._ Michael nodded before replying, "Yeah. I guess I can pop downstairs to visit it for a bit tomorrow." Kerry shot Michael a wide grin.

"Awesome. I cannot _wait_ to see what to see what Choral Fixation has planned for tomorrow," Kerry commented happily. Michael spun around to face his roommate. "What did you say? Did you just say what I thought you said?" Michael asked, hesitantly.

Kerry stared at Michael before slowly saying, "No, I said Choral Fixation...They're an acappella group based out of here and they're good. They're now led by this guy called Burnie. He's actually really cool. He knew my brother when he went here and my brother dragged me to a concert of theirs on campus when Burnie was in the group as a sophomore. It was really neat. All of the original members have graduated, but now it's headed by Burnie." Michael processed Kerry's words for a moment, not sure how to respond. He didn't know what an acappella group was and he had no idea why their name was a pun on the phrase " _oral fixation_ ".

"Hmm. Well, I guess I'll have to check it out," Michael said hesitantly. After a brief pause, he yawned loudly and looked to his clock. "Shit, dude. It's almost eleven. Damn, time seems to fly here." Michael started rummaging through his closet for a moment, pulling out his yellow Yoohoo T-shirt and undoing the belt on his shorts in one swoop. He stripped down to just his plaid boxers and pulled off his shirt before pulling on the Yoohoo shirt.

"I'll be online for a bit and then be out in the next hour or so. If you wanna go ahead and sleep before I'm done, just turn out the lights and I won't disturb you," Michael said, crawling into bed with his MacBook perched in his lap. Kerry nodded, getting ready to go to sleep himself. "Alright. Good night, buddy," Kerry said, shutting off the lights and curling up in his own bed. The other boy settled himself in bed, Michael just watching him for a moment before turning his attention back to his laptop.

As Kerry lightly snored just a few feet away from him, Michael started looking up what the _fuck_ an acappella group is. He came across a couple based out of Yale and a ton of other colleges, along with one called Straight No Chaser, which seemed to be the most popular group out there. He watched video after video of acappella music performances in order to understand just what Choral Fixation would be like.

What Michael saw was amazing. The voices were all tuned perfectly to make one beautiful sound, even without the help of any music behind it. All the voices put together were an amazing symphony. Michael watched YouTube video after YouTube video, staring transfixed at all the guys and girls singing and dancing their hearts out anywhere and everywhere.

Finally, after watching one last performance by a group called The Yale Whiffenpoofs, Michael shut off his laptop and put it next to him on the floor. He stared at his alarm clock and sighed. It was almost two-thirty in the morning. 

_Fuck_ , Michael thought. _So much for trying to get some sleep on my first night on campus._ The boy sighed and curled up in bed, thinking about nothing but the acappella songs that were dancing rhythmically in his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No songs yet.


	2. Joining The Ranks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you all think :)

The next day, Michael opened his eyes and looked around his room slowly, forgetting where he was for a moment. He then remembered that he had just finished his first night as a University of Texas freshman and grinned lazily. He sat up and stretched before grabbing his phone off of his nightstand. He saw that it was about eleven, so he could still get breakfast before the College Activities Fair began. 

Michael lugged himself out of his bed and started changing into jeans and an Adventure Time shirt. As he was changing, he realized Kerry had already left, probably to go find his friends and meet up for breakfast in the dining hall. Michael left his room and made his way all the way across campus to the dining hall, humming quietly as he trekked across fresh cut grass, kicking at any and all leaves that we're in his way.

Finally, Michael reached the dining hall and walked into the main dining area after giving the woman at the cashier desk his student ID. Michael was immediately hit with the smell of pancakes, bacon, and an assortment of sweet-smelling pastries. Michael made his way toward the food line, which was slowly thinning out by the minute. After grabbing almost two plates full of scrumptious-looking food, he looked around to find a table to himself. Michael quickly found an unoccupied booth and sat there, messing around on his iPhone as he ate in silence.

As Michael chowed down on a plate full of pancakes and fiddled with Twitter on his phone, he had to give a small grin. This was his new home - and he was already loving it. Michael looked up for just a second to grab his glass of orange juice, but instead caught sight of something exceptional.

The sight he saw was an adorable-looking, sun-kissed dirty blonde boy who was starting to sit down at a table about twenty feet away from where Michael was seated. The blonde took his seat and hardly has a chance to take a bite of the massive blueberry muffin on his plate before he began to talk animatedly with an older and tired-looking boy. Michael couldn't hear what they were saying, but the blonde boy laughed at something he himself had said and smiled wide as he looked expectantly at the tired boy. The older boy just rolled his eyes and made a deadpan comment right as he was about to dig into his bowl of Frosted Flakes. The blonde boy slumped in his seat for a fraction of a second before resuming animatedly talking to himself.

Michael blushed slightly, praying to God above that the blonde boy didn't look straight ahead of him in the next ten seconds. Michael gave himself a few moments to let himself stare right before he mentally slapped himself. The brunet quickly returned to his pancakes and Twitter feed, chiding himself on his behavior immediately. 

"Michael motherfucking Jones, you're here to study and learn and get good grades and shit so you can become fucking rich making video games for horny teenage boys," the brunet mumbled to himself as he scrolled through his own tweets. "You're _not_ here to get a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Or _whatever_ the fuck you figure out you like in these next four years. That can come later. You need to figure out how to manage school here first before you even try to manage a relationship here." Michael nodded to himself and made sure he committed his own advice to memory as he began to shovel down bite after bite of delicious, fluffy pancakes.

After finishing up breakfast and putting his trays and silverware in the proper area, Michael strolled out onto the main grounds to head back to his dorm when he noticed that there were booths now set up everywhere. _Fuck_ , Michael thought to himself. _The Activities Fair must have already started. Guess I should check some things out before I go back to the dorms._

As Michael went from booth to booth, checking out club after club, he realized he didn't really like anything they were offering. He saw a table for what looked like a video game club, but the table was currently packed with some of the geekiest-looking guys he could have ever imagined. That being noted in his mind, Michael just grabbed a flyer from a boy passing out papers on information about the club and reminded himself to check it out more later.

Suddenly, music hit his ears from just a few feet away. Michael turned around to see a curly-haired boy talking passionately about something in front of a group of other boys and a couple of girls. "Well...looks like I've found fucking Choral Fixation. Time to see what their shit's about," Michael mumbled as he slowly made his way over to the large crowd gathered around the group. 

Michael slowly blended into the group of bystanders who were just there to watch and stared at the group. The curly-haired boy was finishing up something that sounded like a prepared speech about what they did.

"...That was just a small demonstration of the talent here! We would appreciate some new singers too! We always love to see the new talent that UT seems to bring us every year. It doesn't matter what year you're in," the curly-haired boy was saying. "We accept all kinds. And now, to give you a taste of what Choral Fixation is al about, we've prepared a bit of a longer set for your enjoyment. If you're interested and want to know more about us, please see either Matt or I once we're done! Thank you and now enjoy more of the sounds of Choral Fixation!"

And with a quiet four count from Burnie, the group launched into an acappella rendition of the song "Don't Stop The Music". As the curly-haired boy sang and all the group backed him up, Michael got chills all up and down his arms and legs. They were amazing. Perfect, even. Michael watched as the curly-haired boy practically danced around the audience, singing his heart out. 

Once they were done, Michael clapped about as hard as he could with trying to make his hands go numb. The brunet's mouth hung open and kept clapping just as the curly-haired boy began another song.

"God, he's such a fucking prick," a voice said from behind Michael. He immediately spun around to tell off whoever was making rude comments about Choral Fixation, only to find himself face-to-face with the tired-looking boy that was obviously friends with the hot blonde boy Michael observed this morning. The brunet swallowed his insult and just stood staring at the boy in front of him.

"The fuck do you want, freshie?" the older-looking boy snapped. "You gonna tell me off for shitting all over your precious Choral Fixation?" This boy was definitely asking for it, Michael started to realize. The brunet's hands slowly closed into fists, but he held his tongue, afraid to make a scene and get expelled on his second day on campus.

After a few seconds of silence between the two, the older boy chuckled. "Alright, relax, freshie. I'll leave you to watch the asshats sing. But if you wanna check out real talent, finish watching them and then come down to the booth that's six down from here going right. You may find us more enjoyable," the older boy said before he scurried off towards where he had told Michael to go

He was confused for a moment, wondering what the older boy could possibly have in store for him. He resumed watching Choral Fixation, but Michael wasn't in watching the performance anymore. He was too curious. Finally, in the middle of a slower song called "Like A Prayer", Michael ditched watching Choral Fixation and sped towards the booth the older boy had told him to come to.

However, when Michael got to the right table, he wasn't too sure that this was the right table. The table was decked in black and green streamers and balloons, along with a giant hand-painted banner that said "THE ACA-CHIEVEMENTS" in large, blocky letters. Suddenly, the older boy from earlier popped up from behind the table and smiled as wide and as fake as he could manage

"Welcome to The Aca-chievements! We're the second most popular acapella group here at the University of Texas and we're just as good as those assholes over at Choral Fixation!" the older boy said over-happily. Michael took a few steps towards the table, feeling a bit uneasy.

"Uh...why did you ask me to come here?" Michael questioned, his stomach churning slightly. The older boy laughed loudly and grinned.

"Because we're trying to steer all males that have been checking out the Choral Fixation booth over here. So far, you're the first one to take me up on my offer to come visit us," the boy said, folding his arms across his chest and looking pretty impressed. Michael was even more confused and a bit taken aback at first, but soon, he settled into a comfortable irritation.

"So you basically fucking took me away from a great performance in order to make me come see your shit display," Michael stated. "No thanks, asshole. I'll pass." Just as the brunet was about to walk away, the older boy let out an almost desperate noise to try and get his attention.

Michael spun around and saw the pleading look in the older boy's eyes. After a moment, Michael exhaled the breath he hasn't intended to hold in and walked closer to the booth. "So what's the deal with you all, then?" Michael asked.

The older boy smiled earnestly before starting, "Well, I'm Geoff Ramsey and I'm the head of The Aca-chievements. I love video games and I also happen to have a fucking huge passion for acapella music. So I decided, _what the hell,_ and mixed the two a bit to come up with this group. At every competition we attend, we're always in third or last place and fuckin' Choral Fixation always takes first. That's how it's been since last year when Michael Burns, who's known to everyone as Burnie, took over as a junior." As Geoff continued to explain everything about The Aca-chievements, he thought back to what Geoff said about the curly-haired boy Michael had seen leading Choral Fixation. 

That had been the boy Kerry was telling him about yesterday. 

_That_ had been Burnie.

Michael had to admit to himself that Burnie did seem really cool. And he happened to be an amazing singer to boot. Michael continued to half-heartedly listen to Geoff's rambling speech as he kept thinking about Choral Fixation. Maybe he should join them and...

"Hey, dumbass! I asked you a question!" Geoff squawked. Michael was torn out of his thoughts and jolted back to reality by Geoff's loud voice. The brunet stared at the older boy for a moment before replying, "What was the question again?" Geoff visibly rolled his eyes and let out a slight groan. "Can you even fucking sing or what?" Geoff repeated, looking more annoyed. Michael looked down at his feet and kicked at the ground. "Well...uh...I can. Sort of. I mean I don't think I'm the best. But I can sort of," the brunet responded. The older boy crossed his arms and smirked wickedly.

"Well, then...sing for me," Geoff said casually. "I'll consider it your audition. Besides, we need more guys anyway since two of ours graduated this last school year. So if you wanna get involved, you should join us. We play video games and sing acappella." Michael looked up at Geoff, feeling a little uncomfortable at his request. He kicked at the ground again and thought about singing for Geoff. He really hated singing in front of others.

Instead of singing for Geoff, Michael snatched up the clipboard on the Aca-chievement's table and scribbled down all his information. He shoved the clipboard at Geoff before rushing back towards his dorm room. He was hoping that Kerry wasn't back yet from the Activities Fair so he could just play Minecraft and listen to some acapella music in peace. Michael thought about Geoff's offer as he sauntered in the general direction of Jefferson Hall. 

Michael practically ran back to his room and was happy to find that Kerry was still out, so he could relax in peace. As Michael slipped off his shoes, he softly started singing "Don't Stop the Music", the song made way too catchy - so much so, it had been stuck in Michael's brain all the way back to his dorm - by Burnie Burns and his crew. Michael stopped what he was doing and let himself get lost in the song.

"I fucking knew it!" a voice shouted from behind him. Michael jumped, spinning around like a flash and coming face to face with Geoff, who was now wearing a shit-eating grin. "I knew that if I followed you back here, you were sure to sing without realizing it. Look, Michael Jones or whatever the fuck was the name you wrote on my clipboard, you're a fucking good singer. I need someone like you in The Aca-chievements. So please. Do it for me. I'm fucking begging you."

The older boy stared at Michael with pleading eyes. The brunet thought about the proposition for a brief moment before a piece of information popped into his head. This was a chance to make a few friends and have fun doing something new...

Then, Michael remembered something a small shred of good information: The blonde boy Michael had saw at breakfast this morning was friends with the asshat in front of him. This could be a chance to get close to him and maybe see if he was everything thought him out to be. If he wasn't, then he was okay with going back to the drawing board on people he liked. But if he was as good as he looked...

"Alright, is this gonna be a habit with you? Christ on a crutch..." Geoff huffed. "Everytime I ask you a question, you space out on me. Are you gonna join or what, asshole?" Michael chuckled to himself and let himself smile and loosen up a bit.

"Sure. I'll join you. I mean, why not, right?" Michael replied. "I need to at least see if it's better than what I expect from a shithead like you." Geoff let out a bark of laughter as he strode towards Michael. The older boy tousled the younger's hair slightly before making his way back to the door.

"Fantastic. I'll see you in the auditorium tomorrow at one-thirty for a meeting so you can meet your new mates," Geoff said as he left. The older boy stuck his head back in the room for a second and shot Michael a genuine grin. 

"Thanks, mate," Geoff said as he closed the door behind him and left. Michael's smile slowly faded after a few seconds, plopping down on his bed with his head in his hands. Michael looked up and let out a small groan, his thoughts suddenly filled with only a simple question.

"What have I just gotten myself into?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SONGS:
> 
> Don't Stop the Music - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTdOzQecsMA


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael finally meets his comrades.

The next day, Michael started walking towards the auditorium building, a sense of anxiousness filling his stomach. His steps towards the building were slow, almost as if he was trying to prolong the time until he got there. But, if he were to tell the complete truth, Michael was trying to get there as slowly as possible. He had barely passed his pseudo-audition for the singing group, but that was only because Geoff caught him singing alone in a room by himself. Michael had no idea how in the _fuck_ he was supposed to sing in front of who knows how many guys.

It wasn't until around ten past noon when Michael entered the auditorium. As soon as he had taken three or four steps into the large, spacious theatre, Geoff's voice called out to him to hurry his ass up because he was "late as dicks". He saw that the older boy and five other males were sitting center stage in a circle. Michael exhaled a deep breath and hurried towards the stage.

The brunet took the stage's stairs two at a time and hustled towards the six boys sitting in the circle. An older-looking boy who had a large ginger beard and Geoff shifted over a bit to make room for Michael in the circle.

"Glad you decided to join us, asshole," Geoff said, rolling his eyes. Michael flushed light pink and tilted his head down to stare at his hands in his lap. "Now that everyone is here, we'll do introductions since I don't know half of you underclassmen."

Geoff started off the introductions, but chuckled slightly before mentioning that everyone already knew him, earning a small snicker from the ginger boy next to him. The boy on Geoff's left had brown bowlcut-like hair and introduced himself as Caleb "Ultimate" Denecour. He announced he was a freshman at UT and that he had come to the school because they had such a good Ultimate Frisbee team.

The boy next to Caleb was a sort-of tanned skin boy with dark hair and also introduced himself as a freshman. He said that his name was Ray Narvaez and he liked to live life by the theory of YOLO. Michael chuckled at that and made a mental note to himself to talk to Ray more later because he seemed like a pretty cool guy.

Next to Ray was Miles Luna, a sophomore boy who was a lot louder than he looked and had a really good Bane-from-Batman impression. As the group laughed uproariously at his epic Bane inpression, Michael knew he had heard his name somewhere before, but he couldn't place where it was, so he just put it in the back of his mind and focused on listening to rest of the introductions.

After Miles was a boy with fair brown hair and was a little bit quieter than everyone else. He introduced himself as Ryan Haywood and said that he didn't know what he wanted to major in yet, even though he was graduating from here next year. Then, once Ryan had finished, the ginger boy next to Michael spoke up, introducing himself as Jack Pattillo, who was a senior and would be graduating with Geoff in the spring.

Once Jack was done explaining about how he is such a fucking boss at Trials Evolutions, it became Michael's turn. The brunet boy stared at the different people in the circle before clearing his throat and speaking.

"Uh...I'm Michael Jones. I'm a freshman and I wanna become rich one day by being a video game designer. I really don't like singing in front of people, but I'm hoping being here will help me conquer my fucking dumb fear or whatever," Michael said, a little nervously. Geoff smiled, chuckling under his breath.

"Trust me, boys, this kid can fucking sing," Geoff said, smirking at Michael. "I've heard him. We'll bring him out of his shell soon enough." All the other boys shot Michael smiles and nods of reassurance, the brunet boy relaxing slightly at their reassuring looks. But as everyone smiled or gave a thumbs up at Michael, he noticed something was missing...

It took him a second, but Michael figured out what it was. 

The blonde boy that was Michael has seen with Geoff yesterday (and was obviously Geoff's friend) was missing.

Michael thought about asking Geoff about the issue even if it would be really fucking embarrassing, but the older boy piped up first.

"...And that's everyone!" Geoff began. "We _would_ have another member, but my dumbass best friend, Gavin fuckin' Free, decided he wanted to join goddamn Choral Fixation and not the acappella group started by his best friend and current roommate. He's such a fucking dumbass sometimes, I swear to Christ."

At that news, Michael's heart sunk a little deeper down in his chest. Gavin must be the name of the blonde boy he had seen yesterday. He wasn't completely sure, but a niggling feeling in the back of his mind told him that that was Gavin. _Well_ , Michael thought, _At least I won't be distracted now. I really need to focus on school and shit._

"So...all we're gonna do today in the time we have left is look at different songs that we could perform at the fraternity inductions," Geoff continued, pulling a laptop from the computer bag from his side. He pulled out his Razer laptop and set it in front of him, immediately going onto YouTube and typing in different acappella group names.

For the next hour or so, the members of The Aca-chievements watched videos of acapella group performances along with a few funny Let's Play episodes Geoff had found. At around two, everyone decided that they would meet tomorrow at the same time and they should all go get lunch the next day after meeting up to rehearse a number or two. 

Just as everyone was dispersing to go back to their dorms for the rest of the day, Michael ran to catch up with Ray, who was making how way out the front of the theater.

"Hey, bro," Michael said. The tan-skinned boy turned around and gave him a small grin. "It's Ray, right?" The other boy nodded before saying how glad he was that there were more freshman in the group. He went on to explain how his roommate, Joel, was a member of Choral Fixation and one of Burnie's best buddies. 

"Joel's _super_ neurotic and is obsessed with the fuckin' stock market for some reason, but he's a really great guy," Ray commented. "I'll have to introduce you to him sometime. You live in Jefferson too, right?" Michael nodded and smiled a big. He'd at least know a few other guys in the dorms. Michael knew that, since everyone in The Aca-chievements is male, everyone will be living pretty close together, living in either Jefferson Hall or the other male hall called DuPont Hall.

"You'll have to come up one afternoon when we're not in practice and meet Joel, who should be in Choral Fixation rehearsal now. We live in Room Fourteen, which is two rooms down from where Miles and Caleb from the group are bunking. I met them yesterday at the booth after Geoff roped us all together," Ray explained. As the two strolled back to their hall, they talked about their roommates, what they wanna do with their life after college, and their favorite video games and television shows. Just as the two boys reached Ray's room, they were in the middle of a heated discussion about Pokémon.

"No, bro," Ray said. " _Magikarp_ is the most badass Pokémon. He's so fucking great." Michael giggled, leaning against the wall for support as he laughed. The two calmed down for a second and shot a smile to each other.

"You know," Michael said quietly. "You're the first real friend I've made here. And I'm _really_ fucking grateful for that." Ray laughed and punched Michael lightly on the shoulder.

"Alright, you homoking," Ray chuckled. "Don't get sappy on me." The two laughed for a second before the door to Ray's room opened slowly. In front of the two now was a very tall boy with short black hair, who was wearing a University of Texas sweatshirt and khaki cargo shorts. The tall boy stared at Michael for a second, almost confused on who he was.

"Oh shit, I didn't think you'd be back so soon...Well then..." Ray started as soon as he saw the tall boy, a smile immediately gracing his face. "Um...Michael, this is Joel Heyman. And, Joel, this is Michael Jones. He's a fellow Aca-chievement member. But wait...Joel, I thought you had practice for Choral Fixation today?" The tall boy named Joel shook his head and let out a sigh, leaning against the doorframe on one of his arms.

"Well, Burns released us early today. Apparently, he had some hot date or some shit tonight. I don't fucking know the particulars," Joel said. "He can be a real pain in the asshole sometimes, but I just don't give a fuck, really. You two coming in? I can go get a late lunch now if you two..." Michael was a little startled by the offer but waved away Joel's offer and cutting him off.

"No, I'm fine. Maybe another day. I really need to look up those songs Geoff told us about," Michael said. "I'll text you later or something, Ray." The other boy smiled and waved as Michael headed back towards the stairs. As Michael headed up the stairs to the third floor and to his room, he let a large grin adorn his face. He had made a real friend already and classes hadn't even started.

_Score one for Michael Jones_ , the brunet thought to himself.

When Michael walked back into his room, he noticed that Kerry was back from hanging out with his friends. The smaller boy had a wide grin on his face as Michael plopped down onto his bed. "Hey, Michael!" Kerry said cheerily. "Oh hey, you went to The Aca-chievements meeting today, right? How was it?"

Michael shrugged as he said, "It was nice. I met some really cool people and I already made a friend. So I guess that's a really fucking good thing." Kerry smiled and typed out something on his laptop, replying to Michael as he clicked furiously on the keyboard.

"Yeah, I'm thinking about joining. You know the guy Miles in the group? Yeah, that's my best bro," Kerry said. Michael nodded, finally remembering that was where he had heard the name before. He was friends with his roommate. Kerry continued by saying that he had gone to the Choral Fixation meeting today, but he left a few minutes in because everyone was so talented and he didn't think he'd fit in because everyone seemed to already know each other.

Michael thought about Kerry's idea about joining The Aca-chievements and nodded. "If you wanna join us, I'm sure Geoff wouldn't mind. We need a couple more guys anyway," Michael commented, shrugging. "If you wanna come with me to our meet-up rehearsal thing tomorrow, feel free." Kerry looked at Michael with pure ecstasy written all over his face.

"Sure! I can't wait!" Kerry exclaimed. Michael then turned his attention to his phone, noticing he had two texts from Ray already.

_Hey, gaylord. It's me._

_Joel said I should wait for you to text me first, but, dammit, I'm not gonna be the chick in this relationship and fucking wait up all night for you to text me first._

Michael chuckled quietly at Ray's text. He could feel it now more than ever that this year was going to be an amazing freshman year of college.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No songs.


End file.
